Spicy food was the trigger for the man who beat his wife to death in east Delhi, before sawing off her head, police said.

According to police, the accused, Subodh Kumar, did not like spicy food, and killed his wife after she cooked it for him.

Moreover, five days before the incident, Kumar had made a PCR call to police, neighbours told The Indian Express.

The incident, which took place in east Delhi’s Mandawali, came to light following Kumar’s arrest Tuesday. Police said he had killed his wife on Saturday and kept the body at his home. Eventually, Kumar asked a friend for help in moving the body, who informed police.

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According to neighbours, five days before the murder, Kumar was drunk and started banging the main door of the building, shouting his wife’s name. A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said he opened the door for Kumar at 11 pm. He then went to the second floor, and banged on the door of his home. “I saw Kumar make a call to police; there were some policemen right around the corner of our colony. Then I went inside my home,” said the neighbour.

But DCP (east district) Omvir Singh Bishnoi said they had not received a PCR call. “The accused was produced before a Delhi court and sent to 14-day judicial custody,” he said. Police said they are also probing if Kumar had “unnatural sex with her corpse”.

The neighbour said Kumar and his family had moved into the home on rent and spoke little with the neighbours.

However, of late, he had gained notoriety in the colony as a wife beater. “On Friday, a day before the murder, he started beating his wife; she was screaming. We intervened, after which he took her inside their home. I complained to the landlord. The next day, she was murdered,” the neighbour said.